Today, most people carry many keys with them. For example, many people care their house keys, car keys, office keys and a variety of other different keys. Further, many organizations carry a lot of keys that have to be kept separate. For example, a realtor or agent may have several keys to different homes. A car rental agency may have keys to several different cars. An individual may also carry many outdated keys that have no function anymore. The individual may carry keys to the homes of close relatives or old residences. Many times, these individuals do not even know what the key will open. Individuals do not want to waste time and money trying to determine the function of a particular key might be, therefore, rapid identification of various keys is advantageous.
Most people keep their keys on a key ring for safekeeping and for identification. Most people keep a variety of different keys on their key ring at any given time. For example, many individuals keep a car key, a house key, and office key and several other keys on their key ring at a time. Many times, people build up a mass of keys because they start retaining keys that serve different purposes. A person may, for example, retain a key for a loved one's house and/or car. Further, a person may also possess on their key rings, keys for lockers, bicycles and boats.
It has been known in the art to keep keys on key rings that have key tags to identify the keys on the ring. Prior art key tags are typically made of a solid metal outer ring which holds in place a circular paper or cardboard inner area. The paper or cardboard inner area is kept blank and filled in by the user. The user may write on the paper or cardboard inner area to identify the use and properties of the key. The problem with these prior art key rings is that they are made of paper and/or cardboard. When the tag gets wet, the paper and/or cardboard begins to degrade in nature. Further, the writing on the tag may be smeared and dirtied, such that reading the identification of the key tag becomes difficult if not impossible. Many times, over time, the paper or cardboard completely degrades or is torn away from the metal outer area completely, leaving a tag with only a metal outer area. This completely defeats the purpose of the key tag, mainly, to identify the keys on the ring.
The prior art key tags are not made to be used more than one time. Consequently, when the key tag is marked for use, it is a one time use application. As a result, once the purpose or identity of a key is superseded, the user will then have to replace the key tags often.
The prior art key tags are limited in its use because they cause a user to physically mark the key tag to identify the keys. However, many individuals have writing that is very difficult to demarcate, making identification of the keys difficult for other users.
What is needed is key tag that is flexible yet durable, and allows for identification of the keys being stored on the key ring. Further, a key tag is needed that allows for labels to be pre-formatted or custom formatted from a webpage to be downloaded and/or printed to a user's location. The labels may be downloaded, printed and applied to the key tag for use on a variety of items.